


do i have to fall asleep with roses in my hand?

by wolfchester



Series: heartbreak warfare [4]
Category: Black Widow (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: F/M, this is both sweet and sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2605877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfchester/pseuds/wolfchester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He promised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	do i have to fall asleep with roses in my hand?

* * *

 

_Young and full of running_

_Tell me where has that taken me?_

 

* * *

 

She runs out in front of him, almost trips on a rock hidden by the snow. His arm catches her just in time and she turns around, all smiles and laughter. The hat she wears slips from her head, red curls tumbling onto her shoulders like a blood waterfall.

“Джеймс,” [James] she says. “прийти и играть со мной!” [Come and play with me!]

Before he can respond, she is skipping and laughing away from him, hair bouncing and hat in hand. He follows her boot prints through the trees, careful to miss overhanging branches and rotting logs half-covered by white.

“Наталия!” [Natalia!] he yells into the green. “куда ты собираешься?” [Where are you going?]

He can just see her yellow coat through the tree branches, can just hear the soft trill of her voice against the breeze. “приключение, Джеймс! прийти и найти меня!” [An adventure, James! Come and find me!]

He pushes his way through the woods until he finds her in a clearing, dancing under the winter sun. Leaf shadows smatter her upturned face like freckles, and he finds himself struggling to breath as he watches her move. She is light on her feet, fingers poised, coat twirling. It’s a stark contrast to the Natalia he sees in training, yet so familiar. The steps she takes are as logical and precise as the way she shoots her guns and wields her knives.

Still with eyes closed, she smiles. “Приходите, Джеймс,” [Come, James] she says. “Танцуйте со мной.” [Dance with me.]

He is entranced by her beauty. Takes slow steps towards her, eyes wide as he watches her spin and spin and _spin_. “Я не знаю, как танцевать.” [I don’t know how to dance] he smirks.

She stops spinning and opens her eyes, opens her hands. “Позвольте мне учить вас. “ [Let me teach you] she grins, taking his hands and placing them on her hips. “И вы просто...танец.” [And you just...dance.]

They start to sway back and forward until something comes over James and he moves in ways that he didn’t know he could before, dancing faster and faster until she has to watch her feet to make sure she doesn’t trip on a rock again. Natalia laughs when she realises James is a much better dancer than she thought he would be.

Suddenly, he dips her low, faces almost touching. His breath is laboured, eyes alight with something Natalia can’t quite place.

“Я не знал, что я мог сделать это,” [I didn’t know I could do that] he says, and grins like a child when he sees her smile.

“You must have been a good dancer in a past life,” she laughs in stilted English, something he has been teaching her to perfect. It’s an offhand comment, but it pricks at something in his chest, in his heart.

“Maybe,” he says noncommittally, then realises that he is still holding her down. Slowly, he lifts them both until she is standing flat-footed in front of him again. “Но знаете ли вы, что еще я умею?” [But do you know what else I’m good at?]

She gives him the smallest of smiles. Looks up at him through her eyelashes. It is snowing around them now. A white flake falls on his cheek and she lifts her palm to brush it away. “What?”

He kisses her then, full and passionate and hard. She responds by clutching his face with both hands, pulling him down to her so she can take control of the situation. He laughs into her mouth as her fingers find their way into his coat, under his shirt.

“Сколько у нас времени?” [How much time do we have?] she whispers as his hands unbuttoned her coat.

“достаточно,” [Enough] he grins.

“You know they will kill us if they find out,” she says, frowning even as his mouth sucks marks into the skin of her collarbone.

“They can’t hurt you, not when you’re with me. I won’t let them.” His breath is warm on her cold skin. He reaches up to kiss her forehead. “я обещаю.” [I promise]

  
  


Someone must have seen them leaving the compound together. Someone must have seen the lipstick stain on the Soldier’s collar. Someone must have seen the fingerprints on her hips, the bruises on his neck. Someone must have seen the light in his eyes when someone mentions the Black Widow, Natalia Romanov.

Because three days later, there’s a Soldier in a coma and a Widow with lash marks on her back. Tear-streaked cheeks. Hollow breaths. Floating in a transparent chamber.

_Oh God, мой дорогой, what have they done to you?_

  
  


She can still hear him sometimes. Whispered echoes in empty hallways. Voices in her head.

_They can’t hurt you, not when you’re with me._

He promised. He promised her they would be safe. But promises, she guesses, are hardly made to keep when you live like this.

 

* * *

 

_Love is really nothing_

_But a dream that keeps waking me_

_For all of my trying, we still end up dying_

_How can it be?_

 

* * *

**end**

**Author's Note:**

> song is john mayer's "edge of desire" - possible one of the best songs in the universe with the best guitar solo ever.


End file.
